Gray Tiers
by AnHeiressofaSOLDIER
Summary: Riku and Kairi get some new outfits from the Three Good Fairies, that might help them on their journey-after Sora's goading-and though he's happy about it... He also can't help the worries that plague his heart, and to plan to protect his friends no matter what the cost. Platonic relationships, but SoRiKai if you squint.


**Gray Tiers**

It had been about three weeks since Kairi had arrived at the Tower to train with Master Yen Sid and the King—err, Mickey—and Sora was stunned by her progress.

True, she was spending a lot of time in the Time Chamber—and Sora often teased Kairi for it: that if she wasn't careful, she might end up starting to age in there—but he really couldn't have been more proud of her.

He didn't want her on the front lines, exactly—and fortunately the Keyblade wielder didn't think that would be the case—but her learning how to defend himself was definitely something needed.

Especially since Sora was thinking that it would probably be best to bring more than seven people to meet with the Xehanorts, so that hopefully the ingredients for the X-Blade soup wouldn't be right, but he didn't pretend to be an expert on the subject.

So when Riku and Kairi came back from a particularly long mission—with potion after potion spilling out of their pockets from Traverse Town, it looked like—Sora decided it was time that he tell them his secret.

"You know… to make things easier for yourselves, you should really ask the Three Good Fairies to make you guys some new, magical clothes. That's how I learned to use Drive Forms, and who even knows what cool things you guys could end up with to fit your personalities?!"

Kairi put a hand over her mouth at that, which distinctly made Sora think of Aerith—right before she'd given them the Restoration Committee cards.

"You mean Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, Sora? They worked with Merlin to make the chamber I've been training in, I know, but I didn't know that they specialized in ensembles at all."

As she had spoken, Kairi had put all of the potions onto Yen Sid's desk—he was out at the moment, doing something in the Realm of Sleep—so currently, it was only Riku, Kairi, the fairies and Sora himself at his place.

Kairi would have to move all of the stuff before Yen Sid showed up again—no doubt she'd put it in her temporary room here—but since she looked exhausted, Sora couldn't blame her for being somewhat lazy and placing the necessary items in the first place that she had seen upon her arrival.

How many times had he left things with Leon and the others during his first journey, after all?

Riku, meanwhile, continued to hold onto his own Hi-Potions like a champ.

And snorting, Riku ended up insulting Sora in the way he knew that he would—for which Sora scowled at his friend—by saying, "Why am I not surprised? I always thought you picked up Drives from Roxas, but you had to cheat the process by getting magical clothes, eh?"

Sora was about to shoot back that Riku was just as bad, for deciding that they should go back to Traverse Town more—and rely on Donald's nephews instead of the Moogles, who had been known to help the Organization—and doing so by creating Corridors of Light to get there, instead of using gummi ships at all, but he kept his mouth shut on that subject.

He then stood on his tiptoes, held both of his arms outward, and exclaimed as he jumped into the air once—Kairi particularly looking at him like he was a lunatic as he did so, while Riku just looked amused—that: "C'mon, guys! The fairies gave me a new look again… What I'm wearing now, actually—thanks for noticing, by the way—and it's taught me how to use those Shotlocks things that the old Masters used, I guess, and how to combine it with Flowmotion.

"Riku, you—in particular—should want this, as you know firsthand just how powerful Flowmotion is."

Honestly, Sora had failed to mention that he'd actually begun to learn to Shotlocks during his most recent trip to the Olympus Coliseum—he'd remembered Terra during his Mark of Mastery exam, and he'd then recalled how Terra had used something akin to the Shotlock System to disappear after talking to Riku some—and when Merryweather in particular had noted that he'd learned that new ability, she'd stated that she could make it even easier for him to use it by upgrading his clothes.

Naturally, Sora hadn't been able to resist that.

If that guy Terra had been interesting enough that Riku had decided to keep a secret from him then—and Sora still was the best secret keeper in the world, thank you very much—then what Terra could do… before getting possessed like Riku had, must've been impressive indeed!

Throwing her hands up into the air, Kairi seemed to finally relent to his objective.

Sora grinned.

It was always so easy to get Kairi to jump on board when it came to good ideas. He honestly loved her for that.

"Oh, I guess it can't hurt. And who knows? Maybe if I get a new outfit, it will also allow Naminé to something nice, if she wants to leave me and talk to me outside of my heart again.

"But Sora… If this ends up messing up my style—and giving me new techniques that I can't perfect, and that aren't my cup of tea at all—then it's all your fault!"

And before Sora could get a word in after that, Kairi had already gone through the two, large green doors that were the fairies' room here when they weren't in the Enchanted Dominion.

Idly, Sora had to wonder if some of the items in that location were now changing to give Kairi info about some of her own abilities, rather than the Athletic Flow and Shoot Flow that they now talked about for him.

While Kairi was in there—talking with kindness to her new friends, it sounded like, as she thanked them for all that they had done for her and asked them if they might do her this new favor, as well, if she gave them flowers for it—Riku turned on Sora with a raised eyebrow:

"Why are you so gung-ho about us doing this? It's not like the armor, from the days of yore, that would do better to protect us in battle, so-"

Sora shook his head, cutting off Riku's words, as if to say that he really didn't have an answer to the question… but the truth was that he did. He just didn't want to say it aloud, was all.

But in reality… Sora was hoping that Riku and Kairi's new outfits would look kind of similar to his own, so that way there would be no way for any of them to get confused in the heat of battle and attack each other…

And furthermore, if they were all coordinated in some way, Sora was hoping he might fool some of his enemies that way, and get them to strike him instead of them, if it came down to it.

He was the one who'd survived stabbing the Keyblade of People's hearts through his own chest, after all, so though it might have been arrogant to think this… Sora knew that he was pretty good at surviving most anything.

So if he could increase Riku and Kairi's chances by drawing fire to his own self, he would do it.

Because if there was one thing Sora knew that he couldn't survive… it would be losing friends, like Riku and Kairi, Donald and Goofy, the King… this Ventus person that he apparently had an important connection to… And Naminé within Kairi.

"Whatever," Riku muttered agitatedly, walking away from Sora to grab a hairbrush to straighten out some of his lengthening hair.

Sora frowned.

Didn't Riku know that he'd cut his hair recently? So by doing this—and making his locks appear so much longer than Sora's own—was he now knowingly trying to spite his silent plan?

Riku narrowed his eyes Sora's way—seeming about to say that he would figure out the secret if it killed him, Sora guessed—just as Kairi reappeared before them, in probably the cutest outfit that Sora had ever seen her in:

It was pink still, but more rose colored than salmon, and kind of similar to Sora's own signature red.

She also wore a pink hood with cat ears on it (a gray stripe encircling the entire thing), and a hoodie in that same color, with some gray stripes in a "T" going down.

She also bore a white camisole under it, with a single pink stripe going along the top of it.

Her pendant gleamed in all the green light around them, as she walked Sora and Riku's way and pirouetted for them once.

Sora swallowed, in remembering how Kairi had told him that her necklace had been spelled to "lead her to someone who would keep her safe", and he was going to try his darnest to make sure that that was true this time.

"Well? What do you think?" Kairi asked, positively beaming.

It almost made Sora blush, to think that he'd made her so happy—despite the fuss she'd put up about changing before.

"I have to admit that you were right, Sora. And I hope that you remember this moment, because I'll probably never say those words again, but… I feel like this is going to be a lot easier to fight in than my pink dress was.

"And I appreciate that the fairies said that this would give me an affinity for magic… I'm kind of lacking in that, as I tend to clobber things hard and then ask questions later. But anyway: it's your turn now, Riku!"

And before Riku could protest, Kairi was already pushing him in the trigger-happy fairies' direction—Sora guffawed at this; leave it to Kairi to still boss both of them around so effectively—and when he came back, he was sporting a white T-shirt, a black hoodie (with yellow buttons on the collar of it, similar to Sora's own), and dark wash jeans with a black belt on them.

Sora didn't really know how to feel about this new appearance of his best friend's.

It suited Riku, don't get him wrong! But as far as he was concerned, it was too different from what he himself was wearing.

No one would ever get Sora and Riku confused—if Sora was wearing primarily red and Riku was wearing primarily black—and that meant that Riku would be taking the majority of what was coming his way, didn't it?

Sora didn't like that at idea at all, and he was almost sick at the thought of it.

He'd… grown some, since he'd been the person that had assured Donald and Goofy that Riku—err, Repliku—would be fine on his own, being buff and all, while Naminé was the one who really needed protecting, and so Sora wanted to protect all of his friends…

Maybe even at the cost of his own life, if it came down to it.

And he knew he couldn't tell Riku and Kairi this, of course, so he pretended to be happy—when Riku told him that this new fashion had increased his speed, so there'd be no way that he'd ever be beaten in a race again—and soon after went up to bed, miserable.

…

Or at least Sora had attempted to go to sleep, anyway. But it didn't end up working for him at all.

He stared at his ceiling for hours—thinking, thinking, thinking like Pooh would—before he finally gave up on the endeavor of rest altogether, and got out a pad of paper and a pencil to write down all the people that he needed to save and keep from harm's way in the final battle.

He had to remember them all!

He had to be there for them, or else… the whole multiverse might be doomed, and then what would have been the point of retrieving them in the first place, if they just ended up dying again?

Sora started with the people he knew least, deciding to hold the people who meant the most to him last.

'Oh, okay… So Master Yen Sid recently told me about a Skuld and an Ephemera—err, Ephemer? I don't know—so they should be here.

'Then Terra, Aqua, and Ventus, maybe.

'Roxas and Naminé… If there's a way to help them at all, I definitely want to…

'And speaking of Roxas, wouldn't he want me to keep an eye on Hayner, Pence, and Olette? They're not involved in this conflict, but something random could happen to them, where I need to-'

Sora continued with thoughts like this way into the morning, when he—with everyone else around him—should have been watching Kairi and Riku's dual in the main room, and giving them pointers, but instead was worrying over all the people he had ever met in his life.

If Jasmine was taken from Aladdin again, for instance, Sora knew that it would break his friend's heart into a million tiny pieces. And he didn't want to do that to him.

In Sora's peripheral vision, he thought he might have seen Kairi freeze the edge of Riku's Way to the Dawn as it had gotten to close to her—and then Riku getting the upper hand, by using his newfound speed to kick out at Kairi's legs and knock her over, so that she lost her concentration on her magic—but he wasn't sure.

Yen Sid was applauding the two of them, and Sora joined in without much effort put into it—even though he did end up somewhat tearing his prized paper with his movement—because a Princess of Heart learning how to be a Keyblade wielder was definitely something to be celebrated, right? That had never happened before, had it?

Honestly, Sora couldn't keep track of it all anymore—he was just so tired—and it was only Goofy that seemed to realize that there was something wrong with him.

"Sora, I sure hope ya don' mind me sayin' this, but 'chu sure look exhausted. You mind telling me the last time ya got any shut-eye?"

Goofy had spoken his question pretty loudly, something Sora hadn't wanted him to do in the slightest, and he knew that to not answer Goofy would end up being the kiss of death:

His friends would assume that he was maybe having troubles with the darkness in his heart again, if he ignored the question, and would then try to get him to sit down and control it.

And as Sora hated doing that so very much, he was just going to pretend that he was one hundred percent fine, and try to reassure Goofy that way.

"I… umm… I stayed up a little bit last night," Sora admitted, yawning during the midst of his sentence and not helping his case at all.

He ended up biting down on his tongue to try and prevent it from happening again, as he continued with, "Trying to decide if young Xehanort is completely on board with his future self's plans or not was definitely giving me some trouble, I'll admit, but I… I went so sleep after that, Goofy. No need to worry!" And I did have some nightmares after that, but I'm fine. Really.

Goofy had seemed like he'd wanted to say something to follow that pitiful excuse up, but Sora had walked away from him anthropomorphic friend then; he wanted in on some of the cake, that Master Yen Sid was providing them all in finally figuring out exactly where Terra was in the mess that was Xehanort.

It wasn't until Riku and Kairi went back to Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather to ask for adjustments to their ensembles—Kairi wanted some yellow buttons, Sora had heard, and Riku wanted some crimson splotches in his own attire—that they seemed to notice that the room was full of things telling of Sora's future:

The yellow drapes, Sora knew, spoke of just how afraid that he was, and that he didn't think he could handle any of this at all. And he very much wanted to burn them for that, but before he could manage that fire spell Riku and Kairi were already heading his way.

They both ran out of the room they'd just been in a similar speed, and embraced Sora before he could try and push them away.

And for a time, they just embraced him.

And despite how much he wanted to, Sora couldn't stop himself from crying even the slightest bit.

He'd be okay, and the hero that everyone knew again tomorrow—that new land of the Kingdom of Corona looked especially interesting; and if everyone was right about Marluxia's Somebody being there, Sora definitely had a bone to pick with him—but today he finally got to be the traumatized little boy that he truly was, after almost becoming a Xehanort, and got to be comforted by two other people who knew what it felt it like to lose their hearts.

And so Sora began to heal; and he did it through the people who knew him best, and who were even dressed to match him now, for they knew that from now on…

No matter what came, they would face it together: just as they'd promised to do so long ago.

Whatever lied beyond the morning didn't scare any of the tree of them anymore.

And maybe, just maybe, some of the multiple personalities inside of Sora—including a girl who resembled Kairi, who had used ice magic very similarly to how the redhead herself just had—were starting to get a hand in their long-needed peace as well.

 **Author's Note: Because I couldn't NOT write something about Riku and Kairi's new outfits:)**

 **And I hope that you liked it for your birthday, Liz! (I hope you're having a terrific one, girl!).**

 **This story kind of gave me fits, though. Mainly because I had to come up with some way for them getting their clothes to be a scene.**

 **…And as neat as those pictures on the Internet are of Sora with a bleeding nose in seeing Riku and Kairi, we know that Disney would never allow that—and I've been trying to make my KH stories feel canon lately—so… Sora not doing too well is the thing that's happening here.**

 **I feel like some people might see this as OOC, but I dunno… Sora got pretty upset about things in KH1 and CoM.**

 **And Sora really will be okay soon after this. He just needed one day to deal with his emotions.**

 **This also might be too short. IDK. But if it had been longer, then I think I would've just dragged it out needlessly and definitely would have made Sora out of character that way.**

 **Anyway, here's hoping this was at least semi-decent. I had fun writing it, that's for sure!**

 **Hope you all liked it!**

 **And I especially hope that you liked it, Blue. I'll be posting up more presents for you as the day goes by:D**

 **Bye, everyone! Thanks for reading!**

 **Edit: Oh, and the title was me trying to be clever. It's supposed to mean "gray tears", but I didn't want to give too much of this fanfiction away in the title, so it's "gray tiers" instead—sharing a double meaning with what Kairi's wearing that way, as she has gray "tiers"/stripes on her new design;)**

 **And much credit goes to Soraalm1's video that translated "Action Flow" and "Shoot Flow" from Japanese for us, so that I could include those terms in here.**


End file.
